West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-12-02
OUR STAND ON THE DEBT.

debt is substantially the same IS
that taken by Senator Gettinger and
those who acted with him in the
last Legislature. 1t is as follows:
/. So long as the debt is unset
tied, capital will continue to boycott
the State.
This means that our home people
cannot obtain money, in the open
markets, for local enterprises. The
result is few individuals, having a
sort of private back door staircase
to foreign capital are the only ones
who can undertake works to Develop
the State, while all the balance of
our men of energy and public spirit
must give away almost the entire
profit of any enterprise of magni-
tude in order to obtain means to
carry out what they propose. The
consequence is, our development
moves like a snail; and worse yet,
all the immense profits to be earned
by that development goes to non
residents or else to the few individ
uals with q back door staircase to
foreign capital. In other States,
the home people, owning the prop
erty, receive fair share OF the prof
it's earned by developing their local
resources. 1t would be the same
case here were it not that this State
is relentlessly boycotted by foreign
capital.
2. The amount of our debt is
measured by the Ordinance which
created the State. That Ordinance
requires an account to be stated be
tween Virginia and West Virginia.
The latter is to be charged with
what she received and credited with
what she paid; viz, we are to be
charged with the money expended
within our limits, before the war,
and credited with the taxes we paid.
The size of our debt is not in the
slightest degree affected by the cir
cumstance that Virginia issued II
millions of Certificates; its size
would be the same if she had issued
one million or one hundred millions
of the Certificates.
3. What we owe we owe to Vir-
ginia and she owes the Certificate
holders.
These Certificates, in the hands
of West Virginia, would be a good
and valid offset to what she owes to
Virginia. If man has a claim
against me l can buy his paper and
use it as an offset. This is done ev-
cry day.
Sooner or later Virginia must set
tie her debt and, when she does,
West Virginia must pay. Hence, it
has been repeatedly proposed that
this State should purchase suffi-
cient amount of the Certificates to
offset our debt to Virginia so as to
have them ready as an Offset when
ever she calls for settlement. Our
information is, that this plan was
first urged by Ex-senator Davis; it
was certainly advocated, as early as
1874, by Mr.. j. NJ. Bennett, of Yves
ton, and subsequently by Gov.
Mathews. Unfortunately nothing
was done because none of these gen
tlemen took sufficient interest in the
matter to give it the necessary at
tention,
But as the account required by
the Ordinance has never been stated,
no one knows how much we owe Vir-
ginia, and consequently no one can
tell how many Certificates we should
purchase. Hence, Senator Getting
er, being an intelligent business man,
proposed that Committe should in
vestigate and find out our indebted
ness to Virginia, because when this
was done, the Legislature would
know how many Certificates to buy.
If Mr.. Gettinger's plan had been
carried out, We would have gotten
rid of the debt cloud without feeling
the load. Unfortunately the intelli-
gence of the Legislature was une-
quail to its opportunity.
1t is our judgment that Congress
should pay. and some day will pay,
to the Certificate holders, the differ
ence between what West Virginia
owes under the Ordinance and the
amount Virginia set aside as our
proportion of the old debt. For ex-
ononla cnnnose an account under